Ply Days :: Bottomland.

This was a very fast spin but it sat on my bobbins forever. In an effort to clean them off for Tour de Fleece this year (2015), I decided to ply these up for Ply Days in the Sweets off the Wheel group on Ravelry. Super fun, very motivating and it got me to finish this languishing project!

For Ply Days, you have to take photos that are time stamped in some way so much people use their computer, tablets or smart phone to do this as it has to be date stamped as well. I feel like these photos are automatically or maybe mandatorily (?!) crap-tastic:

Above are the finished bobbins, ready to ply. Below is the finished yarn on my jumbo/plying bobbin from Lendrum.

This lovely spin was a braid of fibre that I had originally thought I would combo spin with another Three Waters Farm braid, which was also finished recently. In the end, I decided against it due to the degree of grey in this braid. It’s wonderful. I absolutely love grey.

Here were the two colourways wrapped around one another :: Spring Broomsedge and Bottomland

Unbraided Bottomland and finished bobbin ::

In the end, the bobbins were dark, grey and originally, I thought I would do a blended traditional 3-ply.

I love bobbin shots … do you?! These are shown on my Kromski arched, tensioned Lazy Kate which I kept when I sold my Minstrel. It is a great Lazy Kate and I had just bought it; therefore, I kept it (lucky for me, the Lendrum and Ashford bobbins fit on these Kate’s). There’s a little teaser in there, if you can find it, and I’ll share more soon!

I put quite a bit of twist into the by using my lace flyer. I’m in love with it – I can treadle at my usual rate (kind of slow and relaxed) and get the lovely twist that I like. HOWEVER, I didn’t get the degree of twist that I wanted because I used my jumbo flyer. The ratios on that only go up to 9:1. I so wish there was even just a 13:1 or 15:1 ratio – it would be perfect. Basically what this means (due to the lower ratios) is that for every inch of yarn, I have to do 2 treadles for a fine fibre like Polwarth (to get the twist that I want). I’m actually kind of tempted to put it back through the wheel but you know what? Knit up, it’ll look and feel great … sooooo I probably won’t!

Anyhow, as a skein of yarn, it’s very brown, very grey and it’s perfect. I’m actually thinking about combining it with a natural Corriedale and a creamy Sweet Georgia Yarns’ Polwarth, both of which are chilling in my stash, and knitting up a Colour Affection with this yarn. I thought it might help the yarn to shine next to two neutral, soft colours.